After the Vietnam War, 7-year-old Ke Huy Quan, his father and five siblings risked their lives sailing through rough seas to seek refuge in Hong Kong, while his mother and three other siblings fled to Malaysia. Once his family attained political asylum into the United States, Quan began to live the American dream.
Teary-eyed and gripping onto his Oscar award in hand, Quan is the second Asian performer to win an Academy Award in his category for his best supporting actor role as Waymond in the multiverse film “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp,” Quan said at the Academy Awards. “Somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage.”
Acting came into his life early but indirectly. After Quan helped coach his brother for a casting call for “Short Round” in Steven Spielberg’s 1984 blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” Quan auditioned himself. A screen test with Harrison Ford sealed Quan’s fate, and he landed the role.
The following year, he starred in “The Goonies,” playing “Data,” the tech expert of a band of boys who seek lost treasure. Raking in the films’ financial success, Quan was finally able to support his family, buying a car for his siblings and a house.
His rise to stardom came to a screeching halt after he faced scarce opportunities to act in the Hollywood landscape during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
He enrolled in USC’s School of Cinematic Art and learned how to direct, produce and edit witty films. After graduating in 1999, Quan struggled landing an acting role and invested time behind the camera until he received a life-changing call. Corey Yuen, a Hong Kong action director and choreographer, invited him to Toronto to help choreograph fighting scenes for “X-Men.”
Again during the COVID-19 pandemic, Quan could not book a job after the filming of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” shut down. He lost hope, his health insurance and his dream to act withered away.
As Asian representation diversified the silver screen, Quan said he felt the pressure to leap into the acting game again after more than 20 years.
Now, he continues to have a slew of highly anticipated projects lined up. Quan starred on Disney+ in the television adaptation of the critically acclaimed graphic novel “American Born Chinese,” Marvel Studios’ television series “Loki 2” and played a voice role in the film “Kung Fu Panda 4.
As love fills the air, Quan will play his first leading role as a heartbreaker in the “Love Hurts” action film, releasing in theaters Feb. 7. The storyline follows Quan as a Milwaukee realtor who receives a crimson letter from a former partner-in-crime who he left for dead. He soon finds himself in the crosshairs of ruthless hit men and his crime lord brother seeking revenge for unfinished business.